among the Mahometans, a designation given to the descendants of Ali; between whom and the Ommiades, there was a warm dispute about the khalifate. See KHALIFATE.

ALJEMBUT; in botany, an obsolete name of a species of mimosa. See MIMOSA.

ALIBI, in Scots law; when a person pursued for the commission of a crime, libelled to have been committed at a certain place, and upon a certain day, proves in his defence, that he was elsewhere at the time libelled, he is said to have proved alibi. See LAW, tit. Crimes.